This is the type of shoot I like to be a part of! I photographed a book last year that allowed me to meet several prominent individuals in the food industry, and Paul Heinrich was one of them. This shoot came together fairly quickly, having only a week to book a flight to Houston (not that hard to do) and coordinate with his busy schedule for an hour of his time (challenging given the week’s notice). Heinrich is a senior director at Sysco, one of the world’s largest food distributors, and he definitely is a busy man. We ran the shoot all the way up to his next meeting, members of which he met in the lobby right after we took the above shot.

Due to the limited amount of time I had with him, and given that I had to fly down to Houston (at the crack of dawn, mind you), I had to think and pack light. I usually like to do executive shots with a little more setup than what I carried, but then again, I had to fit everything I needed in to two carry-ons (one a laptop bag). At that time, I was shooting pretty heavy with large shoot-through umbrellas. This was out of the question. Solution: take a 6-in-1 reflector kit with diffuser panels. What about the stands? Solution: Manfrotto’s Justin Spring Clamp (while shooting in one of the test kitchen’s at Sysco, I actually clamped this to a sink water hose, and shot a speedlight through the diffuser panel).

If you ever find yourself in this type of situation, don’t forget to pack the small plastic stands that come with your flashes as well. That’s what I used in this shot, placing a bare flash dialed seven feet away, down low for just an accent fill on camera left (no need for a diagram here). The main light source was a huge row of full-length windows open to a cloudy day outside. When you travel without a slew of light modifiers, you start looking for natural ones. This big bank of windows acts just like a large softbox, and the white walls don’t hurt either (yes, those are white sheep-skin leather chairs). The first shot of the post was taken with Mr. Heinrich standing about eight feet away from a wall of windows that were easily 20-feet tall (maybe taller)!

In the hour I was at Sysco’s headquarters, we moved all over the campus, but I kept us pretty close to fairly large windows, working efficiently, getting enough looks for the book, and not wasting Mr. Heinrich’s time. No fill here, just a window and some flags. Executive shots suggest a sense of responsibility and leadership. Working with the natural contrast of the room and large window source provides that personality. The flags help out as well, providing a nice background for what would have been a very bland wall otherwise.

After the hour-long shoot, I thanked Mr. Heinrich (who could not have been any more accommodating during the shoot), loaded up the rental with the one bag I brought in, grabbed a bite to eat at a great Greek place, and headed back to the airport, putting me home right before sundown. The great thing about day trips is that you have a bit of time to do some editing on the plane.

Speaking of which, if you haven’t flown with gear before, be prepared to get searched by TSA. I get checked every time, and frankly, I believe they are always a bit startled by the Justin clamp.